Last week, I had a break through getting the server going but had the last hurdle of getting the backup program I use to recognize the old catalog files. This is important because if I have to re-create the catalog files, it would be EXTREMELY time consuming. I’m talking a few days to rebuild the catalog. Once re-created, I could restore the data from tapes, again somewhat time consuming although not as much. I posted my problem in the support forum for Retrospect (the backup program) one evening and got the reply I needed the nextg morning from another user. That did the trick! I just needed to change the file type and creator then everything worked. I’ve been restoring files since Thursday and hope to have all the data back online by late Monday or Tuesday.

While I’m glad everything is working again and even did it cheaply, it was a HUGE pain in the rear to get to this point. In the past, when working with PC’s, spare parts were abundant. Everybody had a PC or an old one or two. Heck, I have probably 6 or 7 complete PC’s around. Apple stuff? Not so much. Even so, Apple’s aren’t built to be user servicable so it’s still not easy. That is one thing I can say about Apple’s – they are AWESOME when they are working as they should. If a hardware problem crops up, it’s rarely a quick or cheap fix.

UPDATE 10/14: After running flawlessly for several days, the server is once again acting up. GAH! I plan to order a new server tomorrow. Can’t keep screwin’ around with this one. I’ve got other work to be doing besides this.

With many of my friends changing over to iPhones, getting together for lunch, dinner or whatever else invariably turns into an iPhone orgy with each of us flaunting new apps, new tips on using them, taking caller id photos of each other, you name it. But it’s FUN. Speaking of fun, several folks from church are Twittering now so our connected little community is starting to grow. Pretty soon I’m sure we’ll be Twittering about going out to dinner somewhere or to a movie and have some other folks nearby come and join that are looking for something to do. How cool is that?

Now then, the practical application of geekiness. I’ve been working on a problem with my Apple XServe at the office. One of the data drives failed 2 weeks ago and it’s been a long arduous process getting things going again. Truth be told, I’ve been meaning to do some upgrades to the system and how it was configured – now with a service window at hand, it was time to get things back to tip top shape. First, I wanted to change how my drives were set up. In my old configuration, I had 3 – 250gb drives. I drive was my boot drive that I put the operating system and server applications on. The other two I striped together as a RAID 0 volume that was 500gb in size. That wasn’t such a good idea but you live and learn. A problem with either of the two would cause a loss of data on both. Now, I *DO* back the data drives up to tape every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening so I’ve got that part covered. The caveat is restoring data – it takes awhile to move 400gb+ from tape to hard drives. At first, I thought I wanted to go with having a boot drive and then the two remaining drives as a RAID 1 set. This way, data is mirrored on the two drive and losing one or the other wouldn’t impact things. Another identical complete set of files would be avaialble on the non-failing drive. Problem here is now my data drive will only be 250gb instead of 500gb. I could get bigger drives but there’s an issue with the max drive size supported by the firmware on the server that I didn’t want to fool with.

Ultimately, I am going with a RAID 5 setup using all 3 drives. This way, I can lose any 1 of the 3 drives and all the data will be there but performance will be degraded. I simply replace the failed drive and the server automatically starts rebuilding the data. Also, I have more room! I set up a 20gb logical drive to put the OS and server applications on and then another logical drive around 450gb in size for data. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The original hard drives were Hitachi DeskStars (or DeathStars). Since those guys have been spinning 24/7 since 2004, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go ahead and replace them with drives being so cheap nowdays. Got some Seagate Barracuda ES drives. Long story made VERY short. The server and those drives didn’t play well together. In the interim, I discovered that the servers built-in CD-ROM drive wouldn’t read CD’s… I needed that so I could boot from CD to set up my RAID card and install server software from. GAH!!! I called around to some Apple repair shops for a replacement CD-ROM drive and got prices from $120 to $150 and up for the part. GAH!!! There’s no 24X CD-ROM worth THAT in this day and age. I slid the server out of the rack and looked at the drive. I got the part number and manufacturer off it then did some Googling. I bought TWO of the CD-ROM drives I needed BRAND NEW for… $3.99 each. They arrived today. I put one in and voila! It workee workee.

Back to my Seagates now. The server would only intermittently recognize them. NOT GOOD. I went back over to my buddy’s shop (he ordered the Seagates for me) and told him my latest predicament. He let me have three Maxtor drives to try. I swapped out the drives. BINGO! They are working like a champ.

Finally, I was able to configure the RAID controller and get the drives all set up. I’ve got OSX loaded as well as all the zillions of updates from Apple installed. I’ve got the latest version of Retrospect installed too – that’s my backup program.

Things were going too smoothly now. So… as if on queue, my next issue is that the catalog files for my backups (they have a list of what’s on the backup tapes) aren’t being recognized as catalog files by Retrospect now. I copied the catalog files from the old server to my Mac Book and also to my Dell laptop. For some reason, the server thinks the catalogs are UNIX executable files. Grrrr…. I’ve got to figure out how to heal what looks to be some sort of file association horkage.

I haven’t had to have my I.T. hat on so tightly since my Intergraph days.

Some of you have met my friend Jonathan Palmer and his wife Danielle. I have a link to his blog in my blogroll. Whether he knows it or not, his insight and approach to photography has given me more to think about when making a image. Jonathan’s background as a photo journalist exposed me to a different type of mindset when shooting. You see, my world is dominated with imagery that may or may not stand on it’s own – an image I shoot may be used in whole or in part after some degree of manipulation (more so than simple color or contrast adjustments). As a photojournalist, Jonathan’s images have to stay “purer”, for lack of a better word. Whether that is better or not is immaterial – to me, the intended use of the image drives the process. Is it for news? Advertising? Fun? Satire? Looks? Each case is different so the same set of rules doesn’t apply equally across the board.

Anyway.

Jonathan helped point me in new directions with off-camera lighting. You know when you look at a photo and the subject has been blasted with flash? That’s pretty much the most unflattering kind of light out there and is what you need to avoid to take your images to the next level. That being said, your point and shoot cameras have a fixed flash on it so you’re stuck with that. But, if you can get your light off camera, the quality of your shots increases. After seeing how Jonathan lights things and also doing research of my own (at www.strobist.com), I could pick out his photos in the newspaper without even seeing the photo credits. If he can, he really strives to make an image from a different perspective that what you would expect. It’s almost as if he figures out what the “walk-up” shot would be (the shot that most folks would just walk-up to the scene and take) and avoids it like the plague. That alone is a huge factor in making a bland subject more visually interesting.  Recently, there was a news story involving a crocodile that was in the area that had to be moved by some local wildlife handlers. The photo of the ‘gator I INSTANTLY knew was Jonathan’s as it was needing flash and I noticed that the flash didn’t come from the camera’s position… it was off to the side. I laughed to myself as I imagined Jonathan positioning a light off to the side of the gator then getting into a different position to take the shot – all the while with people standing around wondering what the heck he was doing. But the extra effort was worth it (and it usually is).

Life happens and for Jonathan and Danielle, it will be happening back in Kentucky, where they’re from. I know they miss home where family and old friends are. I’m sure we’ll stay in touch though as the internet has a way of making miles between friends and family disappear. Oh, and thanks for being a good friend.

So I’m driving down the road the other day minding my own business (as I often do). I reach down to open my armrest console to get some sunglasses out and guess what? The armrest opens and comes off in my hand. I guess my visits to the gym are working as I apparently don’t know my own strength. Upon closer examination, the hinge, which is metal, sheared off not at the hinge part, but where the hinge bracket bends.

The part, which is in Atlanta at the moment, should be in my sweaty little hand tomorrow.

Random I know.

UPDATE 9/10: I picked up the hinge and replaced the busted one. Back in bidness now.

After a short week that still seemed like it was a full one, Saturday was a welcome break. The overcast morning made sleeping in even that more enjoyable. I did get up to watch qualifying for the Belgian grand prix then snoozed a little more before REALLY getting up and making breakfast. My big acheivements for the day were vacuuming my car and checking the tire pressures (all were about a half-lb. down). Oh, I also picked about 2 lbs. of mushrooms growing in my front yard. Nothing exotic like Morels or anything so everything went in the trash.

Later that evening, Megan’s class reunion was going on. I got a chance to meet several of her old classmates and make new friends. Afterwards, we and another couple headed over to Cafe 113 for a little more to eat and a few drinks. We called it an evening before too long though as an early morning was coming up.

I woke up around 4 AM for some reason and dozed on and off till I finally got up at 5:30, made breakfast and loaded up my drums stuff. I played the same setup as last week. so no changes there. Once I got going things were business as usual. Everything went extremely smoothly today which unfortunately, is surprising (LOL). Musically, things went great too – everything was on and there weren’t any noticeable bobbles. With the 2 meeting times Sunday, we do now have room to grow once again. Attendance overall was up too! We weren’t sure how many folks would show up for the new 9 AM service but there was a good group there.

Afterwards, it was off to Logan’s for lunch. That’s when getting up as early as I did really started weighing on me. I was spent. Megan was too. Had a moment of comic relief though when Layla, Alison and Jeremy’s infant daughter, spit up all over Alison after a bottle. The first wave (heh) saw about a mouthful of formula come up and hit her on the shoulder – moments later, even before she could do something about her shoulder, about a HALF CUP comes up and hits her on the neck and runs down… well… everywhere. I couldn’t stop laughing. Now, while I’m laughing, the other girls there are trying to help and not laugh too hard either but the way it all played out was just hilarious. In the meantime, the other kids are running amok. Good times.

I went home and tried to watch the Belgian race I recorded from the morning but my bed won out and I soon found myself asleep without setting an alarm. About 5 hours later I wake up. Great.

As I write this, Hurricane Gustav is making it’s way through the south – please remember our friends in that area. A buddy of mine, Greg G., lives down in NOLA with his wife and kids. They were affected by Katrina, but only had some light damage to their home and 2nd vehicle. Luckily for them, floodwaters never reached their home. Greg had hoped they would be out of there before another major storm hit but that hasn’t materialized yet. I spoke to him Saturday though and they were packing and planning to head out to safety Sunday morning. They have to cross that causeway across Lake Ponchatrain that you see on the news so much. One thing they DID get done post-Katrina was to install storm shutters on their windows that greatly cut down on the time it takes to secure their house against bad weather. All that really remained was to board up the doors to seal off the house. After watching the news today, it looks as though NOLA will be spared from another disaster (as of right now). I am concerned about the strength of the new levees though. Seeing water lapping over the tops of them looks pretty ominous.

Meanwhile, we’ve been dealing with OPPRESSIVE humidity here lately. It’s not too bad when you’re relaxing in the shade with a cool drink in your hands. It’s another thing when you’re working. Megan tagged along with me on a wedding job last Saturday evening. While the wedding was indoors, the bulk of the reception was outside. It was sweltering! It was only later that I was reminded that there was a re-enactment of a civil war battle fought here in the late 1800′s going on earlier in the day. I’ve shot that before and those guys are in FULL WOOL SUITS! I can only imagine how uncomfortable that must have been.

The last weekend me, Megan and Livvie headed over to Jennifer and Rodney’s place to have lunch and just hang out. It was a slightly gray day but it kept the heat to a bearable level. They live outside town and have a great place. Jennifer has set up her back yard with plenty of photo sites (she’s been a photographer for years and has a studio not too far from my office) to use with clients and Rodney has a garage (with an in-ground lift baby) to further his (serious) hobby of working with VW’s. Anyway, living in the country isn’t complete without livestock. Suprisingly, Livvie was interested in trying horseback riding. I say suprisingly because she usually isn’t one to try anything new or remotely daring. Megan was suprised as well but we encouraged Livvie and hoped she wouldn’t chicken out. She didn’t.

By all accounts, this weekend had been predicted by the local meteorologists to be a total washout. With that in mind, I went ahead and mowed my lawn Thursday night. It’s Sunday night now and all we’ve gotten is a sprinkling so far. So much for that.

LOST got cranked up again this week with a new episode and BOY was it a doozy! It was an action-packed one to say the least. For me it was one jaw-dropping event after another. Any of you guys LOST fans?

Since the rain held off, I finally went to battle against the holly bush hedges in front of my porch. Those beasties get a little out of hand if left alone too long. Luckily, I think it was last year I picked up an electric hedge trimmer that made the job of manicuring them less of an ordeal than with hand clippers. I got done with one set but need to turn my attention to the shrubs beside my house before I can check that off my list as “done”.

I took a short break in the afternoon before going to dinner with Megan, Livvie, Jessica and Mark. We met up at Macaroni Grill and had a delicious dinner. I tried a different wine this go around as they no longer carried the Kendall-Jackson chardonnay that I’m so fond of. Instead, they had the brand “Toasted Head” that turned out to be pretty good so I really had no complaints. After dinner, we headed to a local bowling alley for a game. That was a nice way to end the evening.

Today was Mario Kart for the Wii day! I picked up my copy after church as well as 2 extra steering wheels (for total of 3). For some reason I thought I had 3 Wii-motes. I went back and got a third when I discovered my mistake. Played that most of the afternoon. In my downtime, I watched the F1 race – they were in Spain this weekend. Ferrari is starting to look pretty strong after a bumpy start to the season. BMW is looking good too.

That wraps up the last few days… Oh, I mentioned I shot a wedding a week or so ago. Here’s one shot from that event:

After hitting around 80 last week, temperatures over the weekend dipped back to winter levels even prompting a freeze warning a few nights. How special is that? The cold was especially bad Monday evening when I brought my camera along to snap some shots of some friends playing their first softball game of the season. Wearing my winter clothes and wearing a toboggan is just plain WEIRD for softball. Things should be returning to more normal temperatures soon though. I hope that Saturday turns out nicely as I plan to head down to the Barber Motorsports Park (just east of Birmingham) for a Honda Superbike race. I’ll keep an eye on the weather report – even though they run in the rain, I’m not a big enough fan yet to watch motorcycle racing in the rain.

On the music front, we rocked some Switchfoot on Sunday. Big crowd there – 186 folks. No mishaps (that anyone noticed) despite having a slightly bumpy warm-up. A huge thanks to Chris W for getting my drums sounding good through the PA. It’s nice having someone that knows what all the sound gear does and how to get the best out of it. You really can tell when he’s driving.

On a separate subject, Final Cut Pro is kicking my behind. Never have I had so much trouble learning how to use an application. I’ve got a feeling that most of the problems I’m encountering are tied to issues with the version of FCP I am using (5.0.4) and the Leopard operating system. I’m going to load it on a Tiger system and see if I get better results. We’ll see.

Last Sunday was a huge day at Crosspoint. My role in the festivities was to procure my buddy Brian’s NASCAR vehicle to use as an attraction in front of the movie theater we meet in. This car travels in style – it has it’s own custom 40′ trailer. Luckily, Jason (as a CDL holder) had experience towing long trailers so it was no problem for him to get it moved around. Having the car there was a big hit! A special thanks to Brian G. for his generosity in loaning that to us.

Between babysitting the car and taking photos, that had me tied up all morning. What does it look like to do church at a movie theater in Decatur, AL?

HAVE A LOOK.

All in all, it was a great weekend despite not getting a break at all. I had a big photo session that Saturday that had me tied up for most of the day then the evening picking up and then storing the race car. This weekend looks to be a busy one also but with me still not back to 100% (I feel about 50% right now honestly) I may be taking a break whether I want to or not. All I know is that it stinks to be sick and I can’t wait to feel like myself again ASAP.

I’m thankful that I made it through the storms early Wednesday morning unscathed. I wish I could say the same for all my friends. My dear friend Sommer lost her mother, step-dad and step-brother in the tornado that hit Lawrence Co. yesterday. She and I had just been talking about the Super Tuesday race and how the candidates were doing before calling it a night (she was in the hospital for some tests being done) and getting some rest. At 3 AM I awoke to the sounds of driving rain and tornado warning sirens. Kyle called me to be sure I was up and seeking cover in my storm shelter (I have an underground concrete bunker behind my home). I also turned my cell phone on just in case I would need it. I received a text from Sommer to take cover just as the storm passed by. We exchanged a few more messages where she let me know she was okay and the hospital was going to release her. It was sometime after that she found out about her family.

Please be in prayer for my friend and her family during this especially tough time. Thanks ya’ll.

Related media links: CNN Decatur Daily